AJ

Alexander Refsum Jensenius

University of Oslo, Chalmers University of Technology

ORCID iD 0000-0001-6171-8743
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About

Alexander Refsum Jensenius, BA, MA, MSc, PhD [he/him] is a music researcher and research musician. He is Professor of music technology at the University of Oslo, where he is also Director of RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion and the fourMs Lab. He is now also in the process of establishing MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity, a large consortium comprising 200+ researchers across Norway, in collaboration with both public and private institutions.

Prof. Jensenius was named Dr Air Guitar after researching the music-related body motion of musicians, dancers, and perceivers. More recently, he was named Professor Standstill because of his interest in human micromotion and his year-long project of standing still every day. Now, he explores the musical properties of indoor environments and how to improve ventilation systems. This is based on triangulating theories and methods from phenomenology, psychology, and technology, and ensuring that all his projects have both scientific and artistic outcomes.

His research has been presented at major music technology and psychology conferences, and he is widely published, including the monograph "Sound Actions" and the "Sonic Design" and "A NIME Reader" anthologies. He has been named European Open Data Champion and has been experimenting with new educational approaches through the online courses "Music Moves", "Motion Capture", and "Pupillometry".

Before all of this, he received a multi-disciplinary bachelor’s degree in music and mathematics and a master’s in musicology from the University of Oslo. He then completed a master’s in applied information technology at the Chalmers University of Technology before pursuing a PhD in music technology at the University of Oslo. He has been a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley (CNMAT), McGill University (IDMIL), and KTH (TMH). He was Head of the Department of Musicology (2013-2016), led the Steering Committee of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (2011-2022), and was a member of the EUA Expert Group on Open Science (2017-2024).

Employment

  • University of Oslo Director
    2025 - Present
  • University of Oslo Director
    2017 - Present
  • University of Oslo Professor
    2014 - Present
  • University of Oslo Director
    2008 - Present

Education

  • University of Oslo PhD
    2004 - 2008
  • Chalmers University of Technology MSc
    2003 - 2005
  • University of Oslo Cand.philol. (MA)
    2001 - 2002
  • University of Oslo Cand.mag. (BA)
    1997 - 2001

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (270)